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Drew Houston picks his words carefully

The CEO of Dropbox, Drew Houston, has said that he hopes president-elect Donald Trump will respect the rights of all workers in the country and retain structures around net neutrality, but admitted nothing is clear for now.

Speaking at a roundtable event Houston, when asked by V3 what he makes of Trump’s election to president means for the company, said that it is too soon to tell if Trump will adopt the positions he used to gain election.

“It’s pretty wild times […] I think a lot of us are sort of waiting to see what actually happens. I mean there’s a lot of speculation about what from a policy standpoint is going to change, or not change,” he said.

“What we really care about is as long as the fundamental values of upholding our users’ privacy and security and the basics around people’s rights, and equality and the values on which the country was founded…we hope that all administrations support that.”

Houston also touched on rumours that Trump and his team are already looking at doing away with net neutrality legislation, and even the FCC itself, by saying that Dropbox hopes these structures remain in place.

“We definitely hope that net neutrality and a lot of the foundational things remain in place,” he said.

Ultimately, though, he said that he, like everyone, is unsure what is going to happen with Trump as president, and so is watching and waiting.

“I think it’s so early to tell, positions haven’t exactly been consistent so…I don’t have a secret window into what exactly is going to happen, I wish I did, but I think we’re all just eagerly awaiting to see what the next few years bring.”

Beyond the political upheaval in the US, Houston said Dropbox was keen to ensure it maintained its growth in Europe, noting that 31 per cent of its users are in Europe, driven partly by growth in the business market.

Additionally, he said that with only 200,000 of its eight million business users currently paying for the product, there is clearly massive growth potential ahead.

Given this, Dropbox COO, Dennis Woodside, also speaking at the roundtable said the company would continue to operate in the region, including the UK, regardless of the impact of Brexit, which for now has not caused any issues.

“We haven’t seen much of an impact [from Brexit] but regardless of what happens the needs of business to collaborate, both within and outside the business, and across borders, those needs are going to remain so we will continue to invest and build our customer base here and see how things turn out.”

Finally, Houston also gave some hints that the company may be working on a tool that would allow you to search for content stored in other services directly from Dropbox.

"Stay tuned," he said, when pressed on the matter, adding that Dropbox would have more to add on this topic in the New Year, although he did not specify if he was referring directly to this area directly, or more general product offerings.